1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a side-handle baton and, in particular, to the combination of a flashlight with such baton.
2. Brief Statement of the Prior Art
A very significant advance in defensive weapons was the modification of the conventional police baton to include a side-handle, thus adopting this weapon for defensive purposes by permitting trained law enforcement agents to defend themselves against attacks from the front, rear and sides in a very effective manner. This defensive weapon is to be carried with the elongated club portion under the arm of the agent and with the agent's hand grasping the upright side-handle. When so carried, the defensive weapon is in an "at ready" position and the agent can immediately execute any of a number of moves to disarm or repel an opponent.
Difficulties, however, are experienced when it is also necessary for the agent to use a flashlight since the free hand must hold the flashlight, thus leaving no hands free for other tasks such as opening doors, moving obstacles and the like. In these instances, the agent will release his grasp of the baton, disarming himself. An effective, single weapon including a flashlight would avoid these difficulties, however, none has heretofore been available.
The combination of a flashlight with a patrolman's night stick or club has been suggested as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 849,216; 1,018,358 and 1,066,540. The difficulty with these prior attempts, which were long ago abandoned, is that the attempts to incorporate a flashlight in a night stick compromised the functions of both the night stick and the flashlight. Typically, the flashlight was placed in the grip end of the night stick, requiring the user to reverse his hand position when changing between use of the flashlight and the night stick. Also, no attempts were made to mount the delicate portions of the flashlight in a protective manner so these components could withstand the shocks imposed during use of the night stick. These shortcomings surely led to the oblivion of these antiquated prior inventions.